My parents broke the mold, when they left their little hometown in Denmark to move to East Africa. At a very tender age, I was introduced to a world far larger than I could ever have experienced at home. I learned new languages, made friends from all over the world, and discovered myriads of cultures.

 

I know now there are countless ways to live a life. No one has the right to dictate how you should live. Liberated from the prison of my own culture, I embraced change, diversity, and new opportunities. After attending high schools in Tanzania and Kenya, I invested four years in learning how to build wooden boats before spending a year on a schooner in the British Virgin Islands. I studied economies at Sussex and Warwick universities, then landed a job as advisor in Uganda's finance ministry. I did a doctorate in economics at Oxford University, while working part time as a freelance consultant. After a stint in the World Bank's research department in Washington, D.C., I analysed Latin American bond markets at investment banks in London and New York, which led me into asset management.

 

After retiring as Global Head of Research at a major Emerging Markets asset manager in 2021, I set out to do all the other stuff I always wanted to do. I crossed the Atlantic as captain of my own ship and spent a year travelling in Africa and Asia. Unwiling to live in Britain due to Brexit, I moved to Spain, where I now live happily. I have been to 180 countries and plan to visit the rest.

 

This blog is about my experiences and my thoughts about the world. You will undoubtedly disagree with many of my views. I am ruthlessly woke, yet a hard-nosed economist. I am pro-immigrant, anti-fascist, an atheist, and a staunch Remoaner. I support de-criminalising drugs and prostitution and I wish the world would move beyond nation states. My social media handles are:

• Blueskye: jandehn.bsky.social

• Substack jandehn.substack.com

 

Enjoy!